DIY

IMAGING

2-MILE CAMERA REMOTE

Walkie-talkie actuator lets everyone pose without rushing for a timer. By Tom Rodgers

Photography by Tom Rodgers

A few years ago, I was hiking with a friend along the ridge at Crater Lake in Oregon, and I saw a great spot for us to pose for a picture, on a cliff overlooking the lake. Unfortunately, the perfect place from which to take that picture was 250 yards away, over treacherous terrain. There was no way I could cover that distance in the 10 seconds allotted by my camera’s timer. So I stayed with the camera and sent my friend ahead to pose on the cliff alone. I was right, it was a great shot, but I was sorry we couldn’t both be in it.

This gave me the idea to create a camera remote with enough range to let me take more interesting, adventuresome shots than the standard timer or short-range remote would allow. It occurred to me that a handheld radio could be used as a remote control, enabling me to set up the camera in advance, and then go pose for an “action shot”

anywhere in the camera’s field of view. I could then trigger the camera with the radio.

1. Open up the camera.

Open the camera and remove the circuit board; I used a scrap of masking tape to secure the camera’s display (Figure A, next page). Find the on/off and shutter buttons on the circuit board.

This camera’s buttons consist of a central disk surrounded by an outer ring. A small metal dome sits on the ring, and pushing the button flattens the dome, bringing its center down on the disk, which closes the circuit.

CAUTION: Watch out for the camera’s flash circuitry; it can give you a shock even after the batteries are removed!

Make: 151